Sanitary pick-out free-bottom sink strainer



Nov. 20, 1951 J. w. CRALL 2,575,585

SANITARY PICK OUT, FREE-BOTTOM SINK STRAINER Fileci Ndv. 16, I948 C(ttorneg Patented Nov. 20, 1951 SANITARY PICK-OUT FREE-BOTTOM SINK STRAINER James W. Crall, Los Angeles, Calif.

Application November 16, 1948, Serial No. 60,309

1 Claim.

This invention is a pick-out strainer assembly for use in domestic or other sinks, or other places of adaptation.

Currently sinks are frequently provided with removable perforated bowls or containers to catch oversize refuse matter, and sometimes these containers are provided with fixed or movable upwardly extending handles, stems or knobs. These obstructions, as well as the wall of the bowl or container, are highly objectional because it becomes very difficult for the house-wife, especially, to keep the perforated bottom of the straining container wholly clean, even after it has been pulled from the usual seat therefor in the bottom of the (kitchen) sink.

This invention provides an assembly and parts thereof which wholly overcomes the difficulty of scraping the bottom of the refuse catcher, whatever its form, with the tips of the fingers to get it clean, particularly around the central handle feature.

It is a further intent of the invention to provide a very low cost, simple, practical, substantial and efiicient strainer combination or assembly, and to provide a two-part refuse collector one of which parts consists of a bottomless, cylindrical shell, and the other a wholly free straining plate which will instantly fall by gravitation from the shell when this is picked out from the sink seat which receives the assembly.

Additionally, a purpose of the invention is to provide a strainer plate which is wholly invertible, face for face for quick replacement in the shell after the faces of the plate have been scrubbed while entirely out of the shell; and in this connection a desideratum is to provide a shell bottom forming strainer plate wholly free from any form of devices afiixed to either of its faces and making cleaning of the plate slow and difficult.

The invention resides in certain advancements in this art as set forth in the ensuing disclosure and having, with the above, additional objects and advantages as hereinafter developed, and whose constructions, combinations, and parts thereof, and details of means will be made manifest in the following description of the herewith illustrative embodiment and its manner of operation; it being understood that modifications,

variations, adaptations and equivalents may be resorted to within the scope, spirit and principles of the invention as it is claimed in conclusion hereof.

Figure 1 is a vertical section of a portion of the sink and of the fitting. Figure 2 is a vertical section of the picked-out shell and the falling strainer part escaping from the inverted shell. Figure 3 is a top plan view of the bottomless shell.

A portion of a sink 2 is shown as having a fixed outlet fitting 3 leading to a drain pipe, not shown. This fitting has a conical seat 4 for the reception of a complementary plug valve 5.

The plug is shown in Fig. 2 as having a stem 5s freely sliding in a spider-arm hub l0, and the stem has a small head 571. which prevents their relative separation; either in or out of the sink fitting.

A feature of the invention consists of a cylindrical, thin walled shell II one end of which has a narrow, inwardly turned flange H to which the arms from the hub [0 connect. Between the arms are large openings rendering the shell practically bottomless so that small waste matter and water can flow rapidly down the drain.

When the shell is in the sink the plug valve will either rest on the said seat 4, to close the drain, or may be stood by plug lugs 51) on cross-bar 3b of the fitting 3.

The shell is provided with a wholly unattached and free-falling, perforated, bottom forming plate I3, Fig. 2; the rim of which is so spaced from the wall of the shell that the plate can laterally shift in its freedom. When the shell is seated in the sink drain the plate I3 seats on the narrow flange l l f of the shell against tipping or tilting but when the shell is pulled or picked from the sink drain and is then inverted the plate l3, having a central hole I 3h larger than the head 5h of the plug valve stem, falls freely from the shell as is clearly shown in Fig. 2.

There are no projecting parts attached to either face of the plate l3 and it can therefore be quickly scrubbed clean, and instantly dropped back into the shell-with either face up. The plate can be replaced in the shell at any time-while it is in or is out of the sink fitting.

When this strainer assembly is in the sink the stem 5s projects upward and forms a convenient handle to facilitate picking out the assembly.

What is claimed is:

An article of manufacture adapted for handy application to or removal from an installed sink drain fitting having a valve plug seat and comprising a shell seatable in the fitting and having an internal bottom flange and a central hub connected to said flange by spaced members, 9; stem slidable in the said hub and having a plug on one end to seat in the sink drain fitting and a. head on the opposite end of the stem and on which the hub loosely lodges when the shell is inverted, and a strainer disc normally loosely seating on the flange 1n the upright position of the shell and having a. central hole of such a size that when the shell is inverted, the disc will freely pass over the head of the stem and drop from the shell.

JAMES W. CRAIL.

-REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Number Name Date McKim Feb. 8, 1910 Binder Oct. 7, 1924 Oakley June 10, 1930 Reedy Jan. 30, 1940 FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date Great Britain Nov. 24, 1898 Great Britain July 5, 1923 

